In Toronto, the day will begin with a battle between two top six players. Grigor Dimitrov, having survived final set tiebreaks in each of his last two matches, takes on Wimbledon Finalist Kevin Anderson. From there, it’s a rematch from the semifinals last week in DC. A day removed from the biggest win of his career over Novak Djokovic, Stefanos Tsitsipas will face fellow ATP Next Gen standout Alexander Zverev. The night session will start with Robin Haase against Karen Khachanov, followed by a face-off of Major champions in Rafael Nadal and Marin Cilic.
In Montreal, play will commence with Australian Number One Ashleigh Barty facing one of the hottest players on tour, Kiki Bertens. Next up will be a rematch from last year’s US Open quarterfinals, where Sloane Stephens survived a third set tiebreak in a highly-entertaining affair against Anastasija Sevastova. In the evening, World Number One Simona Halep takes on World Number Six Caroline Garcia, before Defending Champion Elina Svitolina plays an up-and-coming 22-year-old in Elise Mertens.
Rafael Nadal vs. Marin Cilic
This is a rematch from the quarter-finals at this year’s Australian Open, when Cilic outlasted Nadal, and Rafa was forced to retire in the fifth set. Unfortunately for Marin, the career head-to-head gets pretty lopsided from there, with Cilic’s only other win in their seven previous meetings coming almost 10 years ago. Nadal will look at avenge that Melbourne loss on Friday, as Cilic looks to get back on track following the stunning upset he suffered at Wimbledon. After being up two sets, he choked away the lead and lost to a clay court specialist in Guido Pella. That’s the kind of loss that can stick with you for awhile, so I’m curious to see if Cilic shows any ill effects in his first tournament since. Nadal was pushed on Thursday night by a resurgent Stan Wawrinka, but pulled out the win in the end. I expect a similar story to be told in this one.
Simona Halep vs. Caroline Garcia
Coming off nearly five sets of tennis on Thursday after not playing for a month, how much will Halep have left here? She’ll likely need her best against Garcia, who handily defeated an in-form Maria Sharapova on Thursday. Simona owns a 4-1 record against Caroline, including a straightforward victory just a few months ago in the quarterfinals of Rome. But Garcia’s lone win was a big one, in the final of the hard court event in Beijing last year. That was the biggest title of her career, and qualified her for the WTA Finals for the first time. This is a good opportunity for Garcia to notch another win over a tired and less-than-100% Halep. Simona was complaining of being in pain on Thursday due to blisters on her feet, and that was during the first of her two matches on the day. But as we’ve seen many times in the past year, Halep has a lot of fight in her. If Halep is up for another fight, this has the potential to be a good one.
